Senate Oks Much Wider Funds Probe

Deal Makes Democrats Happy

March 12, 1997|By Mary Jacoby, Washington Bureau.

WASHINGTON — After a surprise revolt by rank-and-file Republicans, the Senate on Tuesday ended weeks of wrangling over the scope of its campaign finance investigation by voting to broaden the jurisdiction to include "improper" as well as "illegal" activities.

The vote on the key amendment was 99-0, with Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) abstaining. Dodd served as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 presidential campaign, which is expected to be a primary focus of the Senate investigation.

The one-word mission change means that all sorts of questionable, though perhaps not illegal, campaign activity will be open to examination. That includes "soft money" raised in unlimited amounts by both parties and the political activities of labor unions and non-profit, tax-exempt organizations.

The Senate then voted 99-0 to approve $4.35 million to fund the probe, with Dodd abstaining. The Senate also set a Dec. 31 deadline for wrapping up the investigation. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) will head the probe.

"We really are back on track again," Thompson said in a Senate floor speech after the compromise had been approved.

At first, Thompson's GOP colleagues were united behind his investigation, which had been planned in response to press reports about improper and possibly illegal fundraising by the Democrats and President Clinton.

Some Republicans' support cooled, however, after Thompson ceded to Democratic demands that he focus on possible congressional as well as presidential campaign abuses. Democrats said a broad investigation would expose problems in the campaign finance system generally and perhaps build pressure for campaign finance reform.

A broad investigation also would have distinguished the Senate's effort from probes being conducted by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and the Justice Department into possible Asian influence-peddling with the Clinton campaign.

With the help of Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania rammed a resolution through the Rules Committee last week to narrow the focus of the Senate investigation to illegal activities.

Democrats reacted with outrage and had prepared a slew of amendments for the Senate floor. Privately, however, most Democrats already had conceded that the GOP leadership had won the battle.

Then on Tuesday morning, the GOP's deal began to unravel as Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said the Republican scope was too narrow and "filled with booby traps."

At the GOP's weekly Tuesday luncheon, other Republicans joined Specter's criticism. In what one participant described as a "spirited discussion," these renegade Republicans argued that without a broadening of their investigation, some of the most eye-catching headlines in the Democratic fundraising controversy might escape scrutiny.

For example, the much-publicized dropping off of a $50,000 campaign contribution in First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's office by Johnny Chung, a Taiwanese-born California fax-service developer, may be embarrassing but technically legal. That's because a Clinton aide, Margaret Williams, quickly passed the check along to the Democratic committee.

"It was more a question of impression: Would the White House try to construe everything as legal?" Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma said.

In addition to Specter, the Republicans who objected to the narrow scope included Thompson, campaign finance reform proponent John McCain of Arizona, Olympia Snowe of Maine, John Chafee of Rhode Island and Dan Coats of Indiana. Their votes were enough to ensure defeat of the GOP resolution.

So to save the investigation from collapse, Lott agreed Tuesday to broaden it; that made Senate Democrats jubilant.

"We got almost everything we wanted," said Harry Reid of Nevada. Dick Durbin of Illinois described his fellow Democrats as "stunned by the victory."

Durbin, a member of the governmental affairs panel, had been prepared to offer an amendment to the main resolution requiring the Senate to consider a campaign finance reform bill. Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota earlier had tried to make Democratic approval of the Thompson committee funding contingent on Lott's agreement to consider reform.

But Daschle quickly dropped Durbin's amendment and others in his rush to agree to the new GOP proposal. The Democrats were eager to sign on because their three key demands were met: that funding be reduced from Thompson's original request of $6.5 million, that a deadline for completion be set, and that the panel's jurisdiction be expanded to include Congress and outside groups.

For the moment, Democrats were savoring their victory. In a late afternoon meeting in Daschle's office, they chortled that a broad investigation of soft money might put a prime nemesis, Kentucky's McConnell, in a hot seat, not just Clinton.

McConnell is an implacable foe of campaign finance reform and head of the GOP's Senate Campaign Committee.

But in an interview he professed himself at peace with the decision. "I think it's fine, too, so it must have been a good compromise," he said.